1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications systems, and more particularly, to a method and system for managing contact information in a communications system.
2. Related Art
Electronic phone books are used to store phone numbers electronically in telephones or other communications devices. Typically electronic phone books store information that would be included in a paper telephone book issued by a local telephone company, such as a name or entity to be called and the telephone number of the person or entity. Storing phone book information electronically within a telephone simplifies use of the telephone because the user can retrieve phone numbers needed to place calls directly from the telephone. Carrying the information needed to place calls within the telephone avoids having to find a paper telephone book or carry telephone numbers separately such as in a personal address and telephone book, personal organizational planner, or personal notes. The phone book information is readily available to the user in the same device that is used to place the call.
Traditional electronic phone books require a user to enter the phone book information directly into the communications device. Users make a selection with the keypad of the telephone indicating a desire to store information in the electronic phonebook and enter the information to be stored into the telephone. For example, if a user wants to enter a family member""s telephone number, the user makes a selection on the keypad of their telephone to request an update of their electronic phone book and then responds to menu prompts to input information, such as the family""s member""s name and the family member""s telephone number. The user then issues a request to store the information in the electronic phone book of the telephone. The user retrieves the information at a later time by selecting the keypad command to retrieve information from the electronic phone book.
Electronic phone books typically can be sorted in one of two ways. First, the information in the electronic phone book can be sorted by the order in which the user entered the information. For example, if a user enters three phone numbers into an electronic phone book, one phone number each for Joe, Ted and Jim, the phone book is sorted based on the order in which the user entered the phone numbers. If the user entered the phone numbers in the order of Joe, Ted and Jim, then when the user selected to retrieve the entries, the entries would be ordered as Joe, Ted, and Jim. So, if the user wanted to retrieve Jim""s phone number, the user would have to first view Joe""s phone number and then Ted""s phone number before the user could view Jim""s phone number.
Alternatively, the phone book may be sorted alphabetically based on the name entered by the user. With the alphabetical sort, if a user entered one phone number each for Joe, Ted and Jim, the phone book is sorted alphabetically based on the name. In other words, when the information is retrieved from the electronic phone book, the user views Jim""s name and phone number first, then Joe""s, then Ted""s.
A disadvantage is that where there are a large number of entries, retrieval may be difficult with the current sorting methods. For example, a user retrieving a frequently called phone number from an electronic phone book storing a hundred phone numbers, would have to review perhaps 80 entries to get to a frequently called entry that was the 81st entry in their electronic phone book. Because users have to browse through many phone numbers to retrieve a frequently called number, users will tend to limit the number of phone numbers they store to a small number.
What is needed is a system and method for making stored phone numbers more easily accessible to a user.
The present invention provides a system and method for managing contact information electronically in a communications device, also referred to as a communications network interface device. With the present invention, contact information is managed based on information automatically obtained through use of the communications network interface device. The present invention stores traditional contact information such as name and destination number, also referred to as a telephone number. Also, the present invention stores in dynamic fields additional information obtained automatically through use of the communications network interface device.
The system of the present invention includes, in a communications network interface device, an apparatus for managing contact information including a memory containing a static field and a dynamic field. In addition, the apparatus includes (1) capability for storing contact information in the memory and associating the stored contact information with the static field, (2) capability for storing information relating to a specific active communication of the interface device within the communications network and for associating the information relating to the specific active communication with the dynamic field of memory, and (3) capability for sorting the stored contact information according to the stored information associated with the dynamic field.
The method of the present invention stores contact information in memory and associates the stored contact information with a static field. The method stores information relating to a specific active communication of the interface device within the communications network. It associates the stored information with a dynamic field of the memory, and sorts the stored contact information according to the stored information associated with the dynamic field.
One advantage of the system and method of the present invention is that additional options are possible for retrieval of contact information. For example, the communication network interface device can automatically record the number of times a specific telephone number is dialed by the communication device. The contact information can then be sorted based on the frequency of calling. This eases retrieval of frequently called numbers within a large number of entries in an electronic phone book.